CASABLANCA DECLARATION

TREATY AT A GLANCE

CompletedFebruary 12, 1943, at Casablanca, Morocco

SignatoriesUnited States and Great Britain

OverviewOne of several conferences between the major Allied powers,Casablanca was noteworthy for its surprise declaration from Roo-sevelt and Churchill that the Allied goal in World War II was the"unconditional surrender" of the Axis powers.

Historical BackgroundAfter the American entry into World War II, U.S. pres-ident Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British primeminister Winston Churchill, who had already on occa-sion met in secret summits, began holding a series ofwell-publicized conferences on the conduct of the war.Although the Allied leaders always discussed mattersof substance and came to major decisions at the con-ference, not all of the statements, reports, or declara-tions they issued reflected their importance. Much ofwhat was discussed of necessity remained secret. Forexample, one could hardly have expected the jointstatement that followed the Quebec Conference inAugust 1943 to have announced the American deci-sion to share with the British its results under the topsecret Manhattan Project, which would produce theatomic bombs that ended the war in the Pacific. Someof the public announcements were significant, how-ever, beyond the propaganda purposes their languagewas clearly meant to serve. The Casablanca Confer-ence, one of the earliest such summits, in january1943, produced just such a significant declaration.

Roosevelt and Churchill met in Casablanca in thewake of Operation Torch, the combined allied invasionof orth Africa, to determine the strategy for the com-ing year. Roosevelt once again soothed Churchill's feel-ings by putting off the opening of a second front inFrance in favor of operations in Sicily. General GeorgeMarshall and Admiral King won approval at the con-ference for offensives in Burma and the southwestPacific. The two leaders spent a lot of time trying topersuade the rival military leaders of Free France,Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud, to at least feign

unity. Then, as the conference was drawing to a close,Roosevelt made the parting pronouncement that peacecould only come with the total elimination of Ger-many's and japan's military and their "unconditionalsurrender. "

With this declaration, which was not nearly sospontaneous as he would have those in attendancebelieve, Roosevelt was trying to send a signal to joseph'Stalin about American resolve in the war. He felt heneeded to do so because his commander in OperationTorch, Dwight Eisenhower, had blundered politicallyin North Africa. The collaborationist Vichy govern-ment had severed diplomatic relations with Washing-ton and ordered French forces to resist the Alliedinvasion. Looking for a French leader with enoughprestige to rally French Africa against the Axis, theAllies had turned to Henri Giraud, a hero of the FreeFrench who had escaped from a prison camp. The onlytrouble was that Giraud demanded command of thewhole invasion force. Then Admiral Francois Darlanshowed up suddenly in klgiers. A leading fascist, Dar-Ian was, according to the Vichy government, the com-mander of the local French forces, and he promisedEisenhower he would make them stop fighting theAllies if the American commander recognized him asthe political chief of North Africa. Eisenhower madethe deal, and the Americans escaped utter humiliationonly when a French royalist assassinated Darlan and deGaulle outmaneuvered Giraud to become de factoleader of the Free French.

It all seemed sinister to Stalin, who had objected tothe North African invasion from the start, suspecting hisWestern allies of delaying a direct invasion of the main-land as a way of bleeding the Red Army by letting it do

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the brunt of the fighting against the Nazis. Thus, Roo-sevelt's "unconditional surrender" was aimed as muchat the ally who was absent from Casablanca as it was atthe enemies whose future it was destined to dictate.

TermsThe declaration itself was couched in the tough-guyphrasing and casual punctuation of American wartimepropaganda, as would be most such documents.

The decisions reached and the actual plans made at Casablancawere not confined to anyone theater of war or to anyone con-tinent or ocean or sea. Before this year is out, it will be madeknown to the world-in actions rather than words-that theCasablanca Conference produced plenty of news; and it will bebad news for the Germans and Italians-and the Japanese.

We have lately concluded a long, hard battle in the South-west Pacific and we have made notable gains. That battle startedin the Solomons and New Guinea last summer. It has demon-strated our superior power in planes and, most importantly, inthe fighting qualities of our individual soldiers and sailors.

American armed forces in the Southwest Pacific are receiv-ing powerful aid from Australia and New Zealand and alsodirectly from the British themselves.

We do not expect to spend the time it would take to bringJapan to final defeat merely by inching our way forward fromisland to island across the vast expanse of the Pacific.

Great and decisive actions against the Japanese will betaken to drive the invader from the soil of China. Importantactions will be taken in the skies over China-and over Japanitself.

The discussions at Casablanca have been continued inChungking with the Generalissimo by General Arnold and haveresulted in definite plans for offensive operations.

There are many roads which lead right to Tokyo. We shallneglect none of them.

In an attempt to ward off the inevitable disaster, the Axispropagandists are trying all of their old tricks in order to divide

the United Nations. They seek to create the idea that if we winthis war, Russia, England, China, and the United States aregoing to get into a cat-and-dog fight.

This is their final effort to turn one nation against another,in the vain hope that they may settle with one or two at a time-that any of us may be so gullible and so forgetful as to be dupedinto making "deals" at the expense of our Allies.

To these panicky attempts to escape the consequences oftheir crimes we say-all the United Nations say-that the onlyterms on which we shall deal with an Axis government or anyAxis factions are the terms proclaimed at Casablanca: "Uncon-ditional Surrender." In our uncompromising policy we mean noharm to the common people of the Axis nations. But we domean to impose punishment and retribution in full upon theirguilty, barbaric leaders ..

In the years of the American and French revolutions thefundamental principle guiding our democracies was established.The cornerstone of our whole democratic edifice was the prin-ciple that from the people and the people alone flows theauthority of government.

It is one of our war aims, as expressed in the Atlantic Char-ter, that the conquered populations of today be again the mas-ters of their destiny. There must be no doubt anywhere that it isthe unalterable purpose of the United Nations to restore to con-quered peoples their sacred rights.

ConsequencesIn many ways the Casablanca Declaration was a rashact. It committed the United States to a power vacuumin postwar Europe rather than a balance of power,which would vastly complicate the peace and giveStalin ample opportunity to fill the vacuum with pup-pet regimes. It may also have discouraged Germansfrom attempting to oust Hitler even when facing suredefeat. And it certainly underlay Japan's determinationto fight on in Asia long after losing all realistic hope ofanything but utter defeat.